Field Supervision of Counselors in Training: A Survey of the North Atlantic Region

Most of the research on supervision has focused on supervisors in academic institutions (faculty members or doctoral students). In this article the authors describe a study in which they examined supervisors in community agencies where master's level counselors were assigned for practicum and internship training. The survey suggested that agencies were heavily invested in supervising graduate level counseling students and providing them with a rich clinical experience. Respondents typically had a master's degree, used various models of supervision, and provided feedback by means of self-report and audiotape or videotape review of counseling sessions. Results suggest that these supervisors had little contact with the concurrent academic supervisor and may have had little formal training in supervision. Implications of this survey include a need for more training for supervisors in graduate counseling programs and a need for more liaison between campus and field supervisors.     

No Downturn Here: Tracking E‐business Programs in Higher Education*

As the fortunes of e‐businesses fluctuate, what is the state of e‐business educational offerings? The present study attempted to explore this question by investigating the number and nature of e‐business programs available in colleges and universities. Results were compared to previously published findings on e‐business education. Data were collected from program web sites. Master's and bachelor's degree programs based in North America and elsewhere in the world were examined. Despite the “dot‐bomb” economy, the present data suggested large increases in all foreign and North American bachelor's programs between the start of the fall semester of 2000 and November 2001. The number of North American master's programs appeared to increase dramatically during the year 2000 and at a lesser rate afterward. Findings also suggested that bachelor's and foreign master's programs involved more technical e‐business courses than the North American master's programs. The educational and economic factors possibly underlying these trends are discussed.     

Essential Characteristics of Master's Level Counselors: Perceptions of Agency Administrators

The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards represent skills and knowledge that mental health agency employers use to judge candidates for master's level counseling positions. A total of 84 professionals who hired master's level counselors in their agencies rated the likely effect of each CACREP knowledge and skill area on their judgment of a potential candidate. Respondents also checked specific knowledge and skills they considered important and the type(s) of master's degrees typically possessed by counselors hired by their agency. Data suggested that each knowledge and skill area may have a moderate to significant impact on the employers' judgments, although some competencies were clearly seen to be more relevant than others. Family intervention was the most highly endorsed specialization, and candidates with social work degrees were hired far more frequently than was any other single type. Implications for counselor education programs and graduates are discussed.     

European Survey of Master's and Doctoral Dissertions in Science Education

Editorial comment and summaries

English

Drs Kjöllerström and Lybeck present here a brief report of their European survey of master's and doctoral dissertations in science education, undertaken subsequently to a workshop on Research in Science Education in Europe held at Malente, FR Germany in 1976. The full report of their survey has recently been published by the Institute for Science Education (IPN), Kiel, FR Germany.

The article published here reports on the distribution, size and organization of science education research groups, their areas of research interest and higher degree programmes. It also surveys the main areas of science education research at master's and doctoral level undertaken during the period 1971‐1976, and the employment taken up by master's and doctoral students upon completion of their studies.     

Training Health Fitness Professionals in Human Interaction Skills: The Link to Physical Education Graduate Education

The author argues in a personalized statement that exercise science graduate degree programs ought to include attention to the questions of how people develop and maintain persistent exercise habits, and how health fitness professionals can help them do so. Recommendations are made for two-tiered graduate preparation in exercise science: master's degrees that focus on preparation of health fitness professionals trained in human interaction skills as well as exercise physiological bases for conducting fitness programs, and doctoral degrees that continue to focus on preparation of researchers and faculty members trained to expand the knowledge base in exercise physiology and to prepare both the new master's and doctoral candidates though graduate education programs.     

Escaping into a master's degree in times of crisis? Master's degree applications and enrolment over the business cycle

The consequences of graduating in a recession could be severe and long-lasting. Bachelor's graduates can, however, avoid entering the labour market by continuing their education. Using a Norwegian dataset containing information on all graduates and their applications to and enrolment in master's degree programmes over a 15-year period, we find that a one percentage point increase in the field-specific unemployment rate results in a 6.5 percentage points increase in applications and a 3.9 percentage points increase in enrolment. Moreover, using a survey of the 2020 bachelor's graduates cohort, that is, the Covid-19 cohort, we find evidence indicating that those pushed into a master's degree by conditions in the labour market differ substantially from those whose decision to enrol in a master's degree is not driven by labour market conditions.     

Women's aspirations for graduate education in Taiwan

This study investigates female undergraduates’ aspirations for master's and doctoral degree programs in Taiwan's universalized and stratified higher education system. It considers the potential effects of economic prospects, parental attitudes, and gender values. First, graduate education is perceived as a means to enhance one's comparative advantages in the competitive labour market. Secondly, parental expectations and women's aspirations seem to decline with education level. They are higher for a master's education and much lower for a doctoral education, implying the influence of family background and traditional gender values, despite some improvements. Finally, specialization and university ranking also substantially affect women's aspirations for graduate education.     

The Counselor's Role in Mental Health: An Evaluation

This study was a follow-up investigation on the counselor's role in community mental health. We surveyed 170 multiservice mental health agencies to evaluate counselor job performance. We received 150 responses. In general, we noted that master's degree level counselors delivered direct care services in a competent manner. The findings also indicated that counselor education departments should consider strengthening student knowledge of psychotropic medication, psychopathology, individual assessment, and use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) (Williams, 1980). Finally, analysis of the data suggested that counselor educators should encourage students to pursue continuing education in program evaluation and budget planning.     

Teaching Research

Different assumptions about reality and knowing underpin different research methods. Contrasting a phenomenological/ interpretivist approach with the assumptions of positivism, I describe teaching about philosophical issues in master's and doctoral courses. At the master's level, exercises in observation introduce students to social constructionist concepts; at the doctoral level the framework emphasizes five levels of re-presentation of experience: attending, telling, transcribing, analyzing, and reading. Greater attention to methodological diversity and contrasting philosophical underpinnings would strengthen research education in social work.     

Central China University of Science and Engineering Adopts New Measure

The costs of living and studies for postgraduate students will be paid by their mentors. Postgraduates, however, must assume more of their mentors' duties regarding scientific research. The state grants postgraduate students a monthly living allowance, but for a master's degree or doctoral student this is currently a mere 200-plus yuan. The Central China University of Science and Technology has decreed that, starting with postgraduate students enrolled this year, this sum shall be paid by the mentors. The allowance for students working toward a master's degree will increase to 270 yuan, and that for students pursuing doctorates to 350 yuan. Adding this to the research subsidies paid to postgraduates by mentors out of their research grants, it is estimated that a student studying for his or her master's degree will have between five hundred and six hundred yuan per month, and doctoral degree students between seven hundred and eight hundred yuan per month. It is estimated that this reform will result in priority development for disciplines closely concerned with economic development.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Data from NCES indicate that it is two to three times more expensive to educate a student at a public four-year college than at a community college. These figures exaggerate the difference between the two when you calculate the costs of the first two years of education for students working on a bachelor's degree. Using modified Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data from the recently released Delta Project, this study shows that the cost per full-time equivalent (FTE) and the public subsidy per FTE are lower at public master's level colleges than at the community college. Trend data from 1987–2005 are examined along with appropriate cautions for interpreting the results.     

Western Countries in the Eyes of Beijing Youth with Higher Education

In July 1999, Beijing Institute of Broadcasting conducted a survey on college students' views on major Western countries. The subjects were between ages 20 to 35 and had an education equal to or higher than an undergraduate degree. The survey adopted the method of quota sampling and a total of 200 subjects filled out the questionnaires. Among them, there were 101 men, 99 women; 99 with bachelor's degrees (including current undergraduate students), 63 with master's degrees (including candidates for master's degree), 38 with Ph.D.s and Ph.D. students; 116 subjects were already working and 94 were college students. Ten or twenty years later, these people will become the major force in Chinese society. It's important to know what they think of Western countries. In order to do this, the current survey was mainly concerned with the extent to which they understood and liked countries such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.     

Enhanced learning pathways and support for coursework master's students: challenges and opportunities

The focus of this paper is on student learning pathways – with particular reference to the factors motivating coursework master's students to seek entry to a doctoral programme – along with the implications for higher education policy and practice. It is argued nationally and internationally that although a number of challenges continue to confront those with responsibility for teaching and supervising coursework master's students, there are opportunities for renewal especially in terms of the provision of enhanced student support. Located within an international context of postgraduate education, a case study from Australia is provided to highlight the need for more flexible doctoral pathways at a time when calls for revitalised and expanded research workforces are intensifying.     

Ethnic Minority Representation in Counselor Education

Chairpersons of the counselor education programs listed in Counselor Preparation, 1980 were surveyed to determine ethnic minority representation among students and faculty. Compared to population statistics, Asian Americans were found to be underrepresented as faculty and Blacks and Hispanics were found to be underrepresented as both students and faculty. Compared to nonminorities in counselor education, minorities (particularly Blacks and Hispanics) are more likely to be enrolled in part-time and master's degree programs and less likely to be enrolled in full-time and doctoral degree programs. Minority faculty are more likely to hold nonacademic, nontenured, and part-time appointments than are nonminority faculty. For the most part, minority faculty are distributed regionally in the same proportion as are minority students. The difficulty in achieving parity on counselor education faculties in a period of no growth is discussed.     

Professional Identification of Counselor Preparation Programs

A survey of 521 counselor preparation programs nationwide revealed that most programs with master's or both master's and doctoral degrees have a counseling professional orientation as opposed to psychological or other orientation.     

The Aula EspaZio Gela and the Master of Space Science and Technology in the Universidad del País Vasco (University of the Basque Country)

We present the Aula EspaZio Gela, a facility dedicated to teaching Space Science and Technology at the master and doctorate level at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), and to promoting the development of this field in both public and private sectors. The one-year master's degree in Space Science and Technology (60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System)) offers a group of compulsory courses which give way afterwards to a set of elective matters in which students choose one of two tracks: the scientific, primarily oriented to basic research at the University, or the technological, leading to the space industry and space agencies. After completion of the master thesis, our students have direct access to a PhD in both curricular lines. Here we detail the main features of the master's degree and the experience acquired in three years, including a comparative opinion survey to the students. We also describe the facilities at the Faculty of Engineering consisting of a specific classroom (Aula EspaZio Gela), an Astronomical Observatory, and different laboratories.     

Gatekeeping During Admissions: A Survey of Counselor Education Programs

Within counselor preparation, gatekeeping begins during the admission process. This article focuses on the prevalence of screening procedures used in master's‐ and doctoral‐level counselor educator programs (N = 79) accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. Additionally, programs' selection and matriculation processes are discussed along with implications for counselor education and supervision.     

Perceptions of Zimbabwean trainee/educational psychologists regarding the training on their support roles and responsibilities in inclusive education

The study used focus group interviews at three administrative offices (provinces) that house trainee/educational psychologists in order to explore their experiences on how they learn about their support roles and responsibilities regarding the implementation of inclusive education. 13 trainee/educational psychologists from these provinces volunteered to participate in the study. The study used a qualitative design based on a phenomenological perspective and inductive thematic content was used to analyse data. The results indicate that trainee/educational psychologists had known their support roles through master's degree programmes, a single 2016 workshop, personally guided reading and collaborative work with workmates. Their views indicated inadequate training and supervision, and negative feelings towards internship after master's programme, payment of supervisors, continuing professional development points, lack of degree programmes in Master of Science in educational psychology, and location of conferences. The results provide important information about educational psychology in Zimbabwe with important implications for training and policy making.     

A Proposed Internship Model for Students in Counselor Education or Supervision

An internship model is presented for graduate students in counselor education or counselor supervision, particularly those at the doctoral level. The author contends that the internship is a relatively neglected but singularly vital component of graduate training. The author's model proposes five behavioral and interrelated dimensions of intern involvement in the field agency: meetings, observations, conferences, consultations and program evaluations. The article also discusses problems associated with internships, including planning and funding responsibilities as well as the need for defining the internship in behaviorally explicit terms.